Snow Angel (The Hope Falls Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page B

something .
    She pulled up to a four-way and saw The Lanes, which looked like a fifties-themed bowling alley.
    Across from the bowling alley sat a large building with gigantic lettering on the side that read Hope Falls Twin Cinemas.
    Perfect! Lily knew that that was where she would be spending most if not all of her free time. She had
    always found comfort in going to the movies. Dancing was her therapy and movies were her escape. For
    the one and a half hours that she sat in the plush reclining chair watching the drama, comedy, action, or
    romance play out on the huge screen in front of her, she completely lost herself in that fictional reality.
    Sometimes she would see the same movie multiple times in the theater. She had seen Love Actually a
    record twenty-five times during its theatrical release. She was sixteen and it had been an especially hard
    year. She’d had a friend who worked at the movie theater, so for a short span of about six months she got
    in free. During her all-access stint she had also seen Lost in Translation, Finding Nemo, Kill Bill, Elf, Mona Lisa Smile, Underworld, Peter Pan, X2, and Old School all at least ten times each.
    Without those movies, she wasn’t sure that she would have made it. They were a stress relief, a break
    from her own disaster of a life, and in a corny way they’d given her hope that her life would get better. That somehow she could make her life better if she just kept going. Those movies had inspired her to not give
    up.
    Now, as she turned onto Pine Tree Circle, it hit her that even though it had taken a decade, her life was
    almost exactly how she had always dreamed it would be. She had the job of her dreams and the house of
    her dreams—for the next six months at least.
    That short timeframe might bother some people, but Lily was used to living her life in short increments
    of time. So in her mind, these next six months were her life. She lived in the moment.
    Lily had made a point to only focus on the positives in her life. It was a survival tool that she had
    learned at an early age. So she chose to ignore the little niggling feeling she had in her chest—emptiness.
    Loneliness. She knew that it was due to the fact that, even though she did in fact have her dream job and
    her dream home, she didn’t have her dream man.
    Lily had never really let herself care about the fact that she hadn’t ever been able to have a true
    relationship. Any real connection to another person. Her lack of having something real was partly because
    of life circumstances that were out of her control, but she also had to admit it was partly because she was only attracted to bad boys she knew were no good for her.
    She never spent too much time or energy worrying about her love life or lack thereof. She’d had more
    important things to occupy her mind—like survival. But in the last couple of years since she hadn’t been
    living at such a heightened state, she had really started to feel the absence of having someone special in her life. Not that there was any way she could ever let someone in. Not really . That would require trust. And she just didn’t trust.
    But today was way too good of a day to let herself think or worry about that. Life was good…today.
    As she pulled into the driveway, she saw that Lauren was already there, her BMW parked in front of the
    sweet cottage home. She was meeting Lily with the lease, application, and keys. As Lily hopped out of her
    car, all of the melancholy she had been feeling over her single status disappeared and was instantly replaced by exhilaration as she practically skipped up the brick walkway.
    When she looked up at the cottage-style home, a realization washed over her like a warm shower spray
    —as of today, this was where she lived . She had a place she loved that was hers. For the first time in Lily’s life, she felt like she belonged somewhere.
    The second Lily’s feet hit the porch, Lauren opened the front door and smiled broadly as she